The Cost Of Laminate Flooring

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I've got few emails about my last post so I decided to write a bit more about laminate flooring for basement. Since you guys wanted to know how much will this kind of flooring cost you, here is another long post for you all. I hope it will help you determine the real value of basement laminate flooring so you can install one in your own home. Enjoy!

The cost of installing laminate flooring for an average-sized basement of about 100 square feet varies from $600 to $ 1500 and would largely depend upon the kind of laminate flooring you decide to have in your basement. The wide variation in price is due type of laminate flooring that may be glued laminates or glue-less variety or a floating flooring. Further, depending on the kind of flooring, you need many different tools for an installation of the same.

A helpful feature of floating laminate floors is that it doesn’t require many tolls and the installation is rather easy. On the other hand, glue less laminate floors or the glued laminate floors necessitate the use of many tools for getting the flooring right. In any case you have to prepare your floor before you proceed with the installation of a laminate floor. the list of tools for the purpose includes a pry bar for removing and trimming the shoe molding, a level to check that the floor is evenly leveled, a cold chisel to pull out the cold flooring and a ball-pen hammer to hit the chisel. You’ll also need a putty knife for preparation work and a floor scraper for removing all the residue from the floor.



In case you have a wood sub-floor, a belt sander will be required to smoothen the surface. You could require a jamb saw for cutting the doorjamb or other trimmings to get the clearance needed for the flooring. But, you need not necessarily buy a jamb saw, and hire one for the purpose. Then, you need a trowel to smooth the leveling compound. All these tools along with a rented saw will amount to about $100.

You’ll need additional tools for the installation of the basement laminate flooring. These tools are a backsaw and a miter box, needed for making angular cuttings on the floor. You make straight cuts with a circular saw that has a carbide blade; while curves are achieved by using a saber saw that has a laminate blade. You really don’t have to buy these. Instead, hire these from your local hardware store. Normal rent for these will be in the range of $20-30 a day. The basic tools needed for the installation of laminate flooring in the basement will be around $100.

You will require coping saw, hacksaw, utility knife, screw clamp, straps, pull bar, driver, electric drill, tape measure, marker, caulking gun, a tapping block, claw hammer, clamp, and nails. The long list of needed items need not upset you as you also get laminate floor installation kits. The kit contains all the tools you will need to complete the job. Its price varies from $350 to $500 and saves you a lot of time in collecting each and every item. The kit may work out to be slightly more expensive than if you bought the items individually.

If you intend installing glued laminate flooring, you will need to have glue also. While you consider having laminate flooring in the basement you should use glue even with glue-less laminate flooring. This goes to provide extra sealant in areas that tend to remain humid or attract moisture, for example areas beneath the dishwasher or the refrigerator.
The additional protection provided by glue and sealant gives additional life to your floor, making them last longer. The cost of glue and sealant for the basement will be around $40, whereas the cost of laminate flooring varies from $0.65 to$3.0 per square foot, depending upon the kind of flooring you opt for. The total expense for an average-sized basement of about 100 square feet may vary from $100 to $600. It all depends upon the kind of flooring, whether you like to go for glue-less planks or the glued laminate flooring. The quality of the laminate and the protection provided to it makes all the difference in costing.

Laminate flooring also needs to have an underlay. That comes in the form of rolls of 100 square feet. Its average price is about $0.30 per square foot or $30 for a roll of 100 square feet. When buying the underlay or the laminate itself, you should buy a little more than the actual measurements of the basement. That extra length will take care f the errors that one makes while installing the floors. Depending on the actual size of your basement and the kind of flooring that you decide to have for your basement the project cost for installing laminate flooring in your basement may vary from $600 to $1500. Of course, you have that choice of buying the tools separately or buy a complete kit.

As you know the basement area tends to have mold around the sink, refrigerator, dishwasher, as all these appliances are associated with water in some form the other.
Therefore it would be worthwhile to provide more protection to the flooring there, else you might have make recurring expenses for its maintenance. For the same reason, you should consider having better quality laminate flooring for the basement.

Installing Laminate Basement Floor

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If you are ready to take care of the following five important steps and precautions, you’ll surely get a successful installation of a laminate floor without causing any harm to yourself or the new floor you intend installing.

1. Generally most of the manufacturers of laminates give warranty for its being installed below grade. Now, that is unlike a hardwood floor. Yet, it will be good to check the warranty clause as provided by re manufacturer.

2. Like any other flooring, laminate flooring too takes its time to get acclimatized to the surroundings of a new place. The best way to achieve that would be to store the intended flooring for about a week before you actually start its installation.

3. It is important to leave room for expansion of laminate. You would certainly be required to keep a gap of half an inch all around the perimeter of your room.

4. You have to be absolutely sure that the basement is totally dry. Remember that humidity and water is enemy number one for subfloors. You should save yourself from the uncalled for financial and physical strain of redoing the job by being cautious before hand.

5. Last, but the most important precaution that you should never afford to overlook concerns your personal safety. Put on your safety gear, particularly goggles, while handling any of the power tools for doing any job.

As laminate flooring is not nailed down it is essentially a floating floor. That makes its installation very convenient. An added advantage is that it has the pleasant appearance of a hardwood floor.



It is quite an interesting and easy to execute DIY project. Here’s how it goes.

1. Before you really get down to the task of laying a laminate flooring it will be helpful to read on the topic of preparation of basement flooring. First step is to cove the entire floor with the subfloor, vapor barrier and padding. Generally vapor barrier and padding form a part of the purchase of the laminate flooring.

2. Having done that, you are ready to start the installation. Using the tongue and grove technique connect a number of planks together to form a long row. Take some another piece of wood lying around the house and put the laminate in place by slightly tapping it. You may need to use this piece of wood for attaching each piece into the groove by slight tapping. The more the number of planks you fix, the sturdier the floor gets.

3. As the number of rows increases, you should continue to stagger the seams. This imparts additional strength to floor in the absence of any clear break line.

4. In due course you will be required to cut the planks to fit with the walls. Take measurement of the space between the wall and the installed board and cut accordingly. You can very easily cut these planks by using a table saw, which is sturdy and thus safer to use than a hand-held circular saw for such kinds of jobs. Alternatively, you may even use a pry bar, a shorter version of a crow bar or caw-caw. Don’t you worry about that, it’s very easy and needs no technical talents.

5. For having a snug fitting around irregular areas like corners or immovable round poles, use a jig saw to get the desired perfect shapes.

6. Continue laying the planks, one after the other till the entire basement floor is covered.

7. Having laid the basement flooring, just install some trim/base boards on the top surface and your finished basement floor is ready.

Basement Tile Floor Tips

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To bring about a different and inviting look to your basement floor, you'll need to make a big effort. But, the advantage of getting additional floor space that can be put to better use is inviting enough to make it a worthwhile venture. End of the day you feel happy of achieved what you set out to do. Be it a concrete or a wooden floor, you need to condition it to look more inviting and neat while it offers durability and the ease of cleaning. Once you have achieved that, rest of the furnishing is not as difficult. Tiles offer a good medium for redoing your present floors. Here are some of the noteworthy points for having a tiled floor.

1. Compared to other kinds of flooring materials, a tile floor is not as expensive. You may choose to have a peel-and-stick variety. It comes in different designs and is so easy to fix that you won’t need an expert for getting the needful done. Now, that is a big saving. Apart from its being economical there’s another very helpful feature of this type of flooring. There is no compulsion for you to finish the complete floor in one go. You may conveniently spread over the project to a couple of days or seek the help of a friend or another member of the family for a speedier completion of the project. Depending on your budget and the intended purpose of readied floor, you may opt for an expensive design and style to get an even richer look.

2. Tiles offer the ease and convenience of replacements. If any piece gets stained or damaged for whatever reasons, you could always replace that with a new one. Since it is do- it- yourself kind of a project you are not depending on the services of any third party who may not be easily available at your convenience.

3. Tile floor is cleaned easily. Let your child invite all friends for a party without your having any anxiety of the floor getting spoiled by spill-over of coffee or other beverages. Likewise, muddy shoes too pose no problems or the footmarks of your pet. Simply fill a bucket of hot water with a few drops of mild detergent as recommended by the manufacturer, and mop up all the dust debris or dirt in a matter of a few minutes.

4. The ease with which a tile can be changed or replaced has another advantage than mentioned already. One fine day you feel rich enough to have wall to wall flooring. The change over from tiles to a carpet involves no technicalities. The switch over is fast and easy. Very often people just lay the carpet over and above the tiles without even removing the tiles. That makes it so convenient!

5. Look at the versatility of designs of tiles. You may have a primary monotone color shade that blends with the neutral surroundings. Or go for an ultra mod design that transforms your basement to a recreation room for the family. May be you like to have a cool and decorative pattern on the floor and convert the basement to a more personal den or utilize the space for an extra bedroom. Add a couple of rugs around the place and create your personal desired scenario.



Basement tile floors are characteristic of bearing rough treatment from shoe traffic, and foot falls of pets and growing children. Easy availability of tiles in attractive colors and designs is encouraging for any householder to brighten any basement for its being put to a worthwhile use.

Bamboo Flooring Installation For Basement

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The application of technology to bio products has been successful in bringing around some very useful properties to some of the most conventional materials used for building houses. Bamboo flooring is one such development that has improved the quality of bamboo used for such applications.

While giving beautiful natural look to the floors, bamboo flooring is stable, durable and affordable too. A feature of great help here is that bamboo takes just about five years before it can be used flooring, whereas trees take a few decades to be worthy of such applications.

Should you be contemplating the installation of a bamboo floor in your basement, you would do well to get some information on the subject and prepare yourself with the techniques you will need to do the job successfully.

The installation of bamboo flooring is comparable to the installation of any other hardwood floor, needing the same precautions and almost the same procedure. You’ll need to provide padding under the floor and then snap the planks into place one by one, for a floating bamboo floor you have to follow these essential practices of laying a floating floor. Similarly hard wood floor has to be properly secured to the floor by making use of a suitable adhesive. In either case the surface should be in level, clean and free of moisture. Improper leveling causes the floors to squeak or bow over a short span of use.

The most important precaution you need to take while using any kind of wood for lying of floor is that the surface to be laid must be absolutely dry. Else, wood will absorb the moisture content, that’s its natural characteristic and begin to rot. And, once the process of rotting gets started you may not even come to know of it till you realize that you need to replace the whole thing. Installation of a bamboo floor is not all that technical and you should be able to do it on your own as long as you are able to devote time to it and take simple precautions. Unless you have that inclination to do it yourself, it’s best entrusted to a professional and avoid the embarrassment subsequently. There are many professional ready to undertake the job for you.

Now, here’s the commercial aspect of it. There are sores which apart from supplying the materials will also undertake the installation. Some may even do it free of charges while others do ask for additional charges to be paid. It may be worthwhile to make enquiries from a few suppliers before you take a final decision. Logically speaking it should help to deal with one man for supply and installation.

There is no dearth of professional services available for doing the job, nor is there any problem in getting the needed material for doing the project off your own. Your personal preferences and attitude decide the matter.

There is no hurry, take your time to decide how you want go ahead with the installation, but do take the needed care to ensure that you have a beautiful floor all the same.

Choosing The Perfect Basement Flooring

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Despite being an important part of the house, basement wouldn't generally get the kind of attention as the rest of the house does. It is largely because most of the householders use it as a dumping ground or for storage of infrequently used and condemned items. Of course it can be made functional for being used for a lot of other purposes, as you will discover thru this article. Depending on the intended purpose of its use, a basement could be furnished with a suitable floor material to match its looks with the kind of activities that might go in there. Here is a list of materials that could be used for covering the floor and even the walls and the roof if needed, and enhance its looks to make it suitable for the purpose for which it'll be used.

Concrete - Good old concrete flooring continues to be a favorite of most of the people who generally make use of it for storing household stuff. Very often we find the basement being used as a workshop for doing all the odd jobs involving the use of drill machine, hammer, saw and a number of similar noisy tools. Only a concrete floor can bear the brunt of such tools and the materials that are handled on such machines. If the basement is to be used for such purposes you hardly have an alternate choice of flooring, and unfortunately there is not much that can be done to improve its aesthetic quotient.



Ceramic Tile - this is a good substitute for concrete. But you have to keep I mind the kind of activity that is going to take place in the basement. In case you expect movement of heavy objects in this region, perhaps you will be better off with some other option. On the other hand, it's perfect for housing of your washing and drying machines. Moisture is a common phenomenon with most of the basements because of the presence of humid air beneath a house and ceramic tiles shield the floor from water damage.

Hardwood Laminate -In case you are going to make use of the basement for a purpose other than storage, you won't find anything more appropriate than a hardwood laminate. It is not uncommon to see basements being converted to a room to be used as library, function room, games room or even a music room. It's attractive flooring for such converted rooms and gives a feeling of warmth. But, care must be taken to provide a good ventilation system, as moisture is a very common problem associated with basements. The basement should not be left closed for long intervals, as the built-up humidity will cause damage to wood.

Thick Carpeting -This is perhaps the simplest way to cover a basement. As already noted, concrete floor is preferred by a majority of people. Thick carpeting may not be a good option for the basement if it is going to experience a continuous haulage or dragging of heavy materials over it. Yet, carpeting is a good choice for basements used for storage of light and small items that may occasionally require a little bit of pushing or dragging. An air dehumidifier is needed for. Carpeted basements are necessarily provided with an air dehumidifier, else moisture of the basement may result to mold build-ups in the carpet.



Rubber/Foam Mats -This may be classified as a combination of carpeting with ceramic tiles. Being waterproof these offer an advantages over a carpet. Another advantage is that they won't build up molds. However, it most helpful feature is to absorb noise. That characteristic makes them a favorite of busy basements that face a lot of traffic and the noise associated with that. Rubber mats are helpful in suppressing the noise level. Lining the walls and ceiling of the basement with an acoustic insulating material may further reduce noise levels to the extent that the rest of the household remains undisturbed even if power tools were used in the middle of the night.


Radiant Heating -In cold weather, radiant heating panels form the best choice as they waterproof and sturdy. Even under extreme cold conditions they are rally able to entrap and retain heat to offer a warm room. Te only draw back of such flooring is that it cannot be used for houses located in warmer environments. Basements, as you know are by design hot and the hot air trapped therein adds to humidity. Thus, such flooring would naturally add to the problem of houses located in tropical areas.

The Basics On Flooring

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The first and foremost thing that you have to decide before even thinking about the kind of means and materials to be adopted for preparing your basement floor, is to decide the kind of activity you plan to have within the basement. You will agree that you can't have the same kind of flooring for using it as a workshop, as when you want to use it as a music room. Basements are also being used for a personal gym, and library too, apart from the most often utilization as a storage place for food or even for housing laundry. The purpose you intend using it for decides the preparation and thus the final treatment. For instance, if the intended purpose were storage of food on a long-term basis, the flooring wouldn't matter much.

Having determined the purpose, you may go ahead with the planning and preparations for the installation of desired flooring. Irrespective of the material that you may have to cove the floor, one very basic requirement has to be taken care of. And that is moisture. As a basement is below ground level it tends to draw moisture from the earth beneath it. You may not be able to see it, but it definitely is there. In due course of time you may be able to sense a smell of mildew or musty odor to confirm its presence. With concrete setting, water will start appearing on the walls or floor of the basement if it had not been sealed properly. That is because cement is porous by nature. Therefore it is imperative to give a waterproofing treatment to keep moisture away from the basement.

If you are not pleased with having base concrete as basement flooring, you may have an additional material fixed over it to give it a more comfortable look to and thus reduce the possibility of damage being caused by moisture. It imparts the finished floor a smoother and warmer look. It also aids to dry the final basement flooring faster and better in case there is a broken pipe or even a simple water spillage. But in case of a very dry basement, you could avoid the installation of a sub floor.

Quite a few basement-flooring ideas do consider the different types of materials that may be employed for installation. If you are thinking of making use of your basement as a plain bedroom, like many house owners do, you need to consider who is going to stay in that room. If it is going to be for visitors who are not going to stay for long, you may opt for flooring that may comprise of low-priced materials. You may choose a material that needs low maintenance as compared to wood or carpets. Even a plain cement floor will suffice. Use a bit of your imagination and mix and match the colors of the walls and ceilings to get a cool effect, as basements are naturally enclosed spaces with no windows.

Ceramic or porcelain tiling is a good and economical option because tiles are easier to clean and maintain. Another advantage is that the installation is not so time consuming. But the preparation of floor is the most important part of the process of fixing the tiles. Before starting with the installation of tiles you have to make sure that the floor is totally free of dirt and filth and there should be no visible cracks or creases. Any such unevenness may cause the tiles to crack. Once the grout has set in and the tiles are shining, you can move in all your planned items to the basement and enjoy the surroundings of your room.

Welcome To Basement Flooring

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This blog is made to help you find a way to the best basement flooring for your needs. Since there are many options out there, a lot of different approaches as well as solutions to one problem, it's best to be informed as much as possible. When you know all the tricks related to the flooring, you will be able to decide what is best for the conditions you have in your home and your basement.

It doesn't matter are you choosing a contractor to do this job or you are going to do it by yourself, we will try to help you in any way we can. Some good advices, based on experience, are bound to help you see which is the best way for you. Basement flooring is something you will probably have to do one time in your life, so it's important to do it right.

Until our next meeting...

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